Scene 2: The Unraveling of The Story

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Tania Head's story begins unraveling

In comparison, the second clip is when Tania’s story starts to unravel for the first time. The mise-en-scence present is with the combination of video of real events that were presented earlier in the film, interviews and reenactment paintings. In terms of cinematography, the film uses straight on close ups to portray honesty which is exactly what you are getting from Janice, a close friend of Tania who is discovering the truth in this scene. She is explaining the emotion she was feeling at the time and you can see her honesty from the camera angle and distance.

For editing, this episode uses continuous shots and follows the 180-degree rule through the reenactments to give a narrative feel and give the viewer a story to follow. Cross cutting is used to switch between the interviews, reenactments and actual video footage. The reenactment stills and small clips of actual video footage are put into montages to portray the thoughts and memories going through Janice’s head as she starts connecting the dots of the lies.

This is used in combination with diegetic sounds of the dialogue which explicitly explain what is going on in the scene as well as non-diegetic sounds that carry the story along and give the emotion associated with the situation; such as, when the tension started to rise, the music speed up. The combination of these choices suggests the argument that contradicts the rest of the film and the truthfulness associated with it. The argument brings questions of honesty and morality to the viewers that never get answered, which I feel is a creative choice the director made to let the viewer come up with the answers on their own. I also feel the director made these choices in order to provoke symmetry to the rest of the film in stylistic choices, when the story line is heading in a completely different direction from the rest of the film. These choices create a sense of narrative for the viewer to follow and get attached to.

Scenes from The Woman Who Wasn't There
Scene 2: The Unraveling of The Story